World

News Briefs June 14, 2012

U.S., South Korea, Japan to conduct naval exercise

The United States, South Korea and Japan will conduct a two-day, trilateral naval exercise June 21-22 in the waters south of the Korean Peninsula, the Pentagon announced in a news release issued June 13.

The exercise will focus on improving interoperability and communications with the South Korean navy and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force, which can facilitate cooperative disaster relief and maritime security activities in the future, according to the release.

The three navies will conduct this exercise beyond the territorial waters of any coastal nation, the release said.

The United States will then conduct a routine carrier operation with the South Korean navy in the Yellow Sea immediately after the trilateral exercise June 23-25, according to the release.

The George Washington Carrier Strike Group will make a port call in Busan, South Korea, after completing the two exercises, the release stated.

NATO hopes to reopen Pakistan supply routes soon

NATO this week struck agreements with Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan allowing the military to evacuate hardware from Afghanistan and bypass Pakistan. Pakistan closed its southern supply routes six months ago after U.S. airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The U.S. recently said a negotiating team was returning home without a deal to reopen the routes. But NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Australia June 13 that he hopes Pakistan routes will reopen “in the not too distant future.”

He says Central Asian alternatives could prove more costly. AP

Sierra Nevada sues over $345 million Air Force contract

A dispute over a $354 million U.S. Air Force contract to build a light air support plane for use in Afghanistan has returned to court.

Sierra Nevada Corp. sued June 12 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims seeking reinstatement of the contract.

The Air Force rescinded the contract and opened an investigation earlier this year after Hawker Beechcraft Corp. said it was wrongly excluded from the bidding process.

Sparks, Nev.,-based Sierra Nevada Corp. says cancellation of the contract is an extreme response to Air Force paperwork errors and that the revised bid proposal is tilted in favor of the competition.

Wichita, Kan.-based Hawker Beechcraft declined to comment on the filing.

At stake is a contract that ultimately could be worth nearly $1 billion, depending on future orders. AP

Local military discounts

Hundreds of new Russian aircraft, tanks and missiles are rolling off assembly lines. Russian jets roar through European skies under NATO’s wary eye. Tens of thousands of troops take part in war games showing off the military’s readiness for all-out war. The muscle flexing suggests that Russia’s economic woes so far are having no impact...

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s president announced plans Aug. 24 to boost his country’s defense spending by an estimated 50 percent as government forces seek to overpower pro-Russian separatists in the east. President Petro Poroshenko pledged to spend an extra 40 billion hryvnia ($3 billion) by 2017 during a speech marking Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet...

Iran unveiled a new generation of short-range marine missiles and aerial drones Aug. 24, as President Hassan Rouhani said its military doctrine was based on deterring and countering threats from unnamed foreign powers. The official IRNA news agency said the Ghadir missile, with a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles), is designed to destroy marine...

NATO is strengthening its military footprint along its eastern border immediately in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, the alliance’s chief said April 16. Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO’s air policing aircraft will fly more sorties over the Baltic region west of Ukraine, far from the tensions in the eastern part of the...

NOVO SELO, Bulgaria – Lt. Col. Valeria Parada had a challenge. She and her team were responsible for rescuing people caught up in a dangerous situation around the Black Sea and making sure they received whatever humanitarian assistance they needed. To do that, she first had to learn how to coordinate among the air, navy...

The Republic of Korea has formally selected the Lockheed Martin ) F-35 Lightning II aircraft for its F-X fighter acquisition program. “We are honored by and appreciate the trust and confidence the Republic of Korea has placed in the 5th Generation F-35 to meet its demanding security requirements. We look forward to supporting the discussions between...

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